The Cleanest Race (2010) is a must read for those trying to understand northern Korea. Ultimately, the book aims to influence US policy toward northern Korea in order to further imperialist ends. In that sense, it is a book by the enemy for the enemy. Even so, the book represents a real, very rigorous attempt to get to the bottom of how northern Korean society thinks. The book is cutting-edge thinking from the CIA wing of US imperialism, from liberal imperialism. For Leading Lights and anti-imperialists, the book is worth reading because it is important to know thy enemies and to know thy friends. The enemy is not all thumbs. The book is an example of contemporary literary and cultural analysis in service to imperialist policy makers. Even if the outlook of the book is fundamentally imperialist, even if it is organized around a set of imperialist questions, the book, in many respects, demonstrates an understanding of northern Korean ideology that is far more advanced than those orthodox “Marxist-Leninists” who defend northern Korea as their own. The book confirms the Leading Light’s position on northern Korea: Though it should be defended from imperialist attack, northern Korea is not a communist-led society, it is not socialist. Northern Korea’s regime is a monarchy that serves one segment of the national bourgeoisie. Power there passes from father (or parent — more on this later) to son. The Cleanest Race shows that, even though it is a monarchy, the regime has some unique and surprising features that do not easily fit with preconceived notions. The book seeks to refute the cliches that northern Korea is “the last Stalinist state” or that it is a Confucian, patriarchal despotism. According to the author, northern Korea is unlike the Soviet regimes of Eastern Europe. Instead the book claims that northern Korea’s ideology is a racial one much more akin to the fascist states of World War 2. Although the author may overstate his case on some points, the book itself is an important piece of a puzzle. It increases our understanding og how northern Koreans see the world and how some of their more enlightened, liberal adversaries are coming to understand them.

Leading Lights have long recognized that the northern Korean state is not socialist. It is not heading toward communism, it is not communist-led. The book implies that northern Korean was never socialist. Its Party and state were never communist-led, according to the author. Rather, from the beginning, the state was a regime of patriotic-national development that legitimated itself using the idea, language, cultural forms of a Korean-version of Japanese-fascist ideology. It is not as simple as all this. Or course there is more to the story. In order to prop themselves up, the regime wedded itself to its powerful socialist neighbors: the Soviet Union and China. When those neighbors went revisionist, northern Korea continued to maintain the relationships. As a result of the years of interaction with the socialist camp, no doubt, northern Korea adopted some of the models, some of the language, and ritual of their neighbors, even if it was often superficial. As the new century progresses, northern Korea mentions “socialism” less and less. Despite the author’s claim that the state is not a strictly Confucian one, surely there are some Confucian influences — even if they are sometimes eclipsed or muted by others. Despite its talk about self-sufficiency, northern Korea makes unequal deals with its capitalist Chinese neighbors. Northern Korea long received aid from the Soviets until the demise of the Soviet Block. Northern Korea has strong-armed much aid out of the United States, becoming one of the top aid recipients at times. At the same time, northern Korea has continued to build up its military program, especially its nuclear and missile capabilities. The regime makes defiant shows to drum up domestic support, but also to keep the imperialists negotiating. The regime has come into numerous conflicts with the US over its military. Although the regime produces vivid propaganda posters, a favorite of the state’s internet groupies, video-game enthusiasts, and nostalgists, its anti-imperialist practice lags behind other states like Iran and Venezuela that are more engaged with the world. Northern Korea is not at the forefront in the construction of institutions like ALBA to challenge First World hegemony in the global market. Northern Korea is not fanning up regional Bolivarian or Islamist movements to weaken imperialism’s hold over its neighbors. There is no northern Korean-aligned Hezbollah or Hamas. Although northern Korea has reportedly sold its ballistic technology to other oppressed countries, the racial and xenophobic nature of the regime tends to run counter to such internationalist sentiments. In this sense, northern Korean, in its best moments, should be seen as junior, lesser partner in the united front. Northern Korea should be defended against imperialism, yet we do not do anyone any favors by removing our brains and pretending northern Korea is a good society or even “the last Stalinist state.” It isn’t. One doesn’t build convincing anti-interventionist solidarity by slobbering all over internet forums in praise of northern Korean leaders or by pretending Juche is some deep idea when it plainly isn’t. Pretending northern Korea is a workers’ paradise is absurd. The KFA can’t even convince its own tourists of this, it sure isn’t going to convince anyone else. Such cheerleading does not help the Korean people. (1)

Real solidarity involves building a credible anti-interventionist movement. It involves educating people around the history of US imperialism in Asia, and Korea. It means exposing real warcrimes and atrocities committed by Americans and other imperialists, not adopting the internal language of a monarchy that whips up anti-Americanism with ghoulish tales of Christian missionaries. Real solidarity means building anti-interventionist alliances with humanists, people of good conscience and other bourgeois liberals. Real solidarity means defending the regime in a way that does not lie to the global proletariat. Despite what the weird circles of self-styled internet Juche-ists, third positionists, fascists, nationalists, nostalgists, “Marxist-Leninists” and video game enthusiasts who latch onto northern Korea think, nobody, except Koreans, outside those circles will ever be inspired by the regime. And Koreans are inspired by it for many of the wrong reasons, as the author demonstrates. The global proletariat may lag, but it does not lag that much. You will not con your way to revolution on the back of the Kim dynasty or other crackpotism. Proletarian revolutions are not con games. Real revolutions are the result of proletarian social forces armed with the highest revolutionary science, organization, and leadership in command. The people’s movement may be in disarray, revisionism is widespread, but the situation is not to the point where northern Korea’s ideology will ever be confused with genuine liberation by the broad masses globally. In this time of confusion, it is absolutely necessary for real communists, Leading Lights, to come forward, to blaze a trail, to lead. It is imperative that people understand the real revolutionary science, organization, and leadership from the shams out there. Leading Lights do not tail. Fight for Leading Light science, organization, and leadership within in the united front. Uphold the broad united front against imperialism! Hold the Red Flag high!

http://llco.org/book-review-the-cleanest-race-2010-by-b-r-myers/

EmanuelaOrlandi posted:
I refuse to admit taht DPRK is anything but paradise on earth and I am prepared to argue for several pages with anyone who vocally disagrees with that belief

I vocally disagree with your belief

germanjoey posted:
oh Kewl.... y'all might remember B.R. Meyers as that guy who infamously wrote about how every famous modern english language novelist is a hack lol. but don't let that color your vision of him; everything I've ever seen from him on North Korea is super interesting. here's a video from a few years ago about Mother symbolism in North Korean propaganda:

http://vimeo.com/9481072

and here's another one that I just found searching for the one above, that he just did about the book in the OP. Probably gonna I mean watch it either tomorrow or listen to it at work on Monday morning.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/292562-1

this video is awesome, make sure u watch it. bf turned me onto it ages ago and ive shown it to a few people.

aerdil posted:

amazing.

Alleged use by terrorists
When one considers that messages could be encrypted steganographically in e-mail messages, particularly e-mail spam, the notion of junk e-mail takes on a whole new light. Coupled with the "chaffing and winnowing" technique, a sender could get messages out and cover their tracks all at once.
Rumors about terrorists using steganography started first in the daily newspaper USA Today on February 5, 2001 in two articles titled "Terrorist instructions hidden online" and "Terror groups hide behind Web encryption". In July the same year, an article was titled even more precisely: "Militants wire Web with links to jihad". A citation from the article: "Lately, al-Qaeda operatives have been sending hundreds of encrypted messages that have been hidden in files on digital photographs on the auction site eBay.com". Other media worldwide cited these rumors many times, especially after the terrorist attack of 9/11, without ever showing proof. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that an Al Qaeda cell which had been captured at the Via Quaranta mosque in Milan had pornographic images on their computers, and that these images had been used to hide secret messages (although no other Italian paper ever covered the story). The USA Today articles were written by veteran foreign correspondent Jack Kelley, who in 2004 was fired after allegations emerged that he had fabricated stories and sources.

notice that in these careful citations there aren't any actual wikipedia-style citations, so the author is free to interlace their ideology into the "citations" style itself. the following paragraphs do have a couple of wiki-style citations and the subsection ends with an italicized emphasis that there are no publicly reported instances of this type of steganography, and "Al Qaeda" steganography is "somewhat simpler", such as phone numbers of terrorists written in "invisible ink". (enumerating the abuses which the courtroom success of such allegations lend themselves to is left as an exercise for the reader)

germanjoey posted:
oh Kewl.... y'all might remember B.R. Meyers as that guy who infamously wrote about how every famous modern english language novelist is a hack lol. but don't let that color your vision of him; everything I've ever seen from him on North Korea is super interesting. here's a video from a few years ago about Mother symbolism in North Korean propaganda:

http://vimeo.com/9481072

and here's another one that I just found searching for the one above, that he just did about the book in the OP. Probably gonna watch it either tomorrow or listen to it at work on Monday morning.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/292562-1

oh i read that and he was absolutely "write" about everything hahahaha

Impper posted:
H's comments about islam are funny too. "i thought about it once, and it struck me as stupid. i have not thought about it since then. i will probably never think about it again"

i'll accept that, since its anti-intellectualism + reasonable behavior rather than anti-intellectualism + obsessive persecution that most Kufr Dogs take

Ironicwarcriminal posted:
what's the name of his latest book?

i've only read the one where he's an IT dude travelling around provincial france and then follows the interracial couple onto a beach and almost kills them, i forget what it's called.

the map and the territory. you should read all his books tho

EmanuelaOrlandi posted:
no, self awareness is not a prerequisite for literature to be enjoyable. Horrible people are the best authors, not people who try not to be horrible - or worse, embrace being horrible like Houellebecq.

houellebecq doesn't embrace being horrible though.

also gf houellebecq is all about hope? cmon SON